Hi there, I came back to update this topic. No, there is no way it was mildew. The apartment was extremely dry, actually, during the winter months, and the discoloration went all the way through the grout. The Starquartz company has been a nightmare to deal with. They sent a nice representative out about a week after I posted, who immediately promised to send me new grout and $500 credit for my contractor. Well, guess what? I emailed and called for 5 months (!) and nothing ever happened. It was an empty promise. Finally, I found out from my contractor that another person had the same problem, so we spoke, and found out that others also had this issue. It was DEFINITELY a quality control issue on the part of Starquartz company, as there were several of us affected by the "bad batch" as a rep referred to it. The long and short of it is that the tile store that my contractor bought the Starglass grout from (Artistic Tile in NYC - good place!) issued me the $500 rebate and charged it back to the company, and then they forced Starquartz to send us the promised 3 buckets of diamond white starglass grout. The only problem was, after 4.5 months of waiting and calling, we HAD to get that bathroom done so by the time they sent the 3 replacement buckets in late June/early July, totally out of the blue as Starquartz had not contacted us about it, ever, we had regrouted about 3 weeks earlier with regular cement grout. (The contractor had dug out the bad grout many months before in anticipation of receiving the promised replacement, so the bathroom couldn't be used for all those months.) Caveat Emptor!

thank you both for sharing your recommendations. homebound: i'm glad to hear the bisazza also has some chips, though maybe not as many as mine (about 6-8/sheet). the showroom here had a small wall of bisazza and i did notice a few small chips here and there, like you say. but it's not noticeable because of the striations and irridescence of that particular tile. since mine are monotone and opaque, i'm worried that the chips will read as a defect. i'm considering changing the grout color from white to putty or something more closely matching the tile, in order to conceal the chips better. the tile is a blue-green, any suggestions? and i was surprised that the backing is not netting, but a sheet of sticky plastic (better for replacing tiles before application, i guess). yadax3: thanks for your info. i'll probably end up going with the "defective" tile though just because my money/investments have shrank by 30%, like everyone else's in the last few days. spending another $3k on tile is an unnecessary and extravagant expense at this point. trend is sending me a replacement for the average number of chipped tiles per sheet. at least they're doing that. but what a mammoth PAIN to sit there and replace each one, one by one (and some need to be repositioned because they were applied skewed!). but i will definitely check out those websites for future reference. who knows, maybe i'll find a real bargain??

Ah! Thanks! I can start with no bottom seal or side seal and see how it goes. I may need a side seal. The shower is only 34 X 34. But...won't the door need something to keep it from swinging into the shower cavity? Does the side seal go on the door or on the tile? Can the door have a stop to keep it from hitting the adjacent wall when it is open? xedos -- I guess I'll have to live with the 'green'. The bids are already a lot more than I want to pay. ($1750 - $1900 for 3/8" 28 X 76)

I doubt it was the thinset we bought super bright white Subway glass tiles from Home Depot and to have enough to do our shower we had to make trips to three to four different Home Depots cuz they did not have enough in stock I use the same thinset bright white for the backing and each tile is covered in a white so if you put it up against the redgard that I have it still would be white no matter what it's a flaw in the manufacturers glass tile or it's possible which I've heard from a tile expert that it could be moisture inside that tile and give it a few months and it might change color but I've noticed five different shades of this white tile as I put them up and yes I'm annoyed and I can't stand two or three tiles that I want to break out so good luck with whatever you choose and you don't need an expert to do this you just need patience. Even a tile experts don't want to work with glass it's very hard to work with especially when you have to make cuts And now I have not started grouting yet in case anyone is wondering why it looks like you can see spaces, I just finished last night and I use the same thinset so it's not that